GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 556915
[enh] Support IPv6
Last modified: 2010-07-27 03:51:20 UTC
Please describe the problem: Hi, I have an ESSID which is IPv6-only -- it provides route advertisements including RDNSS, and IPv4 interaction via NAT-PT. If I select it manually using iwconfig (having n-m turned off), everything works as expected. However, network-manager refuses to believe this network is anything but broken. It selects it, ups the interface (which makes everything works!), waits a bit, decides it cannot get any DHCPv4 responses, and then goes along to select another network (if it can -- if not it just thinks I have no working wifi). At least some kind of option for using the ESSID I just told it to, or to accept v6-only networks as working (ie., be happy when you get a global IPv6 address), would be very nice. For comparison, Windows Vista connects just fine to the same ESSID, and shows me as properly connected to the Internet. Steps to reproduce: 1. Select an ESSID where there is no DHCPv4 server (but IPv6 route advertisements). 2. Wait. Actual results: The n-m applet is spinning around waiting for DHCP, and eventually goes off and selects another ESSID automatically on my behalf. Expected results: It should accept the network as valid, possibly with something like "Connected with IPv6 only" after having given up on DHCPv4. Does this happen every time? Yes. Other information:
0.6.6 doesn't support IPv6. 0.7 does not yet support IPv6 but will at some point in the near future.
OK, so git master supports IPv6 now, but doesn't really support IPv6-without-IPv4. You could just use "Manual" and assign a dummy IPv4 address, and then "Automatic" for IPv6, and that would do what you want though, more or less. (Note: I'm talking about this like it's something you could do now, but this is all still really bleeding edge, and probably only works in Fedora Rawhide. It should be hitting stable distros later this fall though.) Dan, should we add an "Ignore" method to IPv4 too? (Or maybe "Disabled"? It's currently "Ignore" in IPv6 for compatibility with older configs, and so that you can do things behind NM's back [eg, DHCPv6] before NM's IPv6 support is complete. But long term, "Disabled" is probably a saner option.)
git master now supports all IPv6 modes and the "disabled" IPv4 method.
(In reply to comment #2) > OK, so git master supports IPv6 now, but doesn't really support > IPv6-without-IPv4. You could just use "Manual" and assign a dummy IPv4 address, > and then "Automatic" for IPv6, and that would do what you want though, more or > less. That's not a good solution. > (Note: I'm talking about this like it's something you could do now, but this is > all still really bleeding edge, and probably only works in Fedora Rawhide. It > should be hitting stable distros later this fall though.) <nit-pick> Which definition of "fall" did you mean? a) the act of falling. b) a colloquial term for autumn used in some regions of the world. Considering that roughly 90% of humans inhabit the northern hemisphere and that a) doesn't make a lot of sense, I assume you meant "sometime around October/November 2010". Please try to remember that we don't all live in North America. </nit-pick> > Dan, should we add an "Ignore" method to IPv4 too? (Or maybe "Disabled"? It's > currently "Ignore" in IPv6 for compatibility with older configs, and so that > you can do things behind NM's back [eg, DHCPv6] before NM's IPv6 support is > complete. But long term, "Disabled" is probably a saner option.) Instead of determining connectivity status by only checking IPv4 connectivity, you should instead check connectivity for each of the enabled protocols. This then brings up the issue of what to do when some of the protocols report OK but others report issues. I suggest the user interface should include the following for each protocol: Use of this protocol is: (x) Required - Disconnect if this protocol cannot be used. ( ) Optional - Use this protocol if possible. ( ) Disabled - Don't use this protocol. You should find that re-factoring the code to match with the above options will make using and coding Network Manager much more straight-forward for scenarios such as IPv6 only, IPv6 with optional IPv4, IPv4 with optional IPv6, etc. Regards, Tyson Clugg.